Define Paid Marketing – Ezines Solo Ads

It is commonly said that Paid Marketing is the FASTEST way to get website traffic. PERIOD.

I define Paid Marketing as the marketing technique like the name, where you pay for exposure or traffic. It is the quickest way to be on page one of any keyword phrase you want in a matter of minutes with Google AdWords. However, the minute you stop buying these clicks from Google your advertising stops.

There are many ways to get started in “Paid Marketing” with a small budget. These can be useful in getting things rolling while you’re planting seeds in your chosen areas of promotion. I have discovered as Marketers mature, Paid Marketing is always part of their mix.

For the purpose of this article, I will touch on the first three “paid marketing strategies” now utilized on the Internet to drive traffic to a website, capture page with the sole purpose of making a sale or building a list to sell to later.

The first is AdWords, or Google Search Engine Marketing. Their names have become so common that we sometimes use them to refer to paid marketing, just like Kleenex is a soft facial tissue yet we use the brand name when referring to any brand of tissue. AdWords and Google are brand names, but since they are the major players we refer to the whole strategy by their names. Actually, more accurately we should call it Pay-Per-Click Advertising (Google, Yahoo, MSN & Others). Also known as Pay Per Ranking, Pay Per Placement, Pay Per Position or Cost Per Click, this strategy enables you to position an advertisement for your site at the top of search engine results by using keywords that best describe your product or service. It’s a competitive and dynamic marketplace – the higher you bid, the higher your advertisement will be displayed on the list.

Different than conventional print advertising, you pay only when a searcher clicks on your listing and connects to your site. You don’t pay to have your ad listed; you only pay for clicks or “click through”. So you are actually paying for the traffic to your site. And here’s a plus, there are no other hidden costs.

Pay-Per-Click is an ADVANCED marketing strategy that has a significant learning curve. One should have a budget of at least $2,000 a month to spend and it is highly recommended to complete your “learning process” with other strategies so that your learning curve may not be so expensive. To advertise successfully with Pay- per-click (PPC) you must be prepared to invest in your education if you expect this strategy to yield results. However, with that being said, if you are WILLING to learn this strategy it can be extremely effective!

Though many credit Jeffrey Brewer of Goto.com, and Goto.com founder, Bill Gross, for starting PPC (Pay-Per-Click) it was not until October of 2000 that AdWords’ system with Google was introduced, allowing advertisers to create text ads for placement on the Google search engine. Then in 2002, you actually paid for each “click” as prior advertisements were charged at cost-per-thousand impressions.

Now, PPC is an Internet advertising model used on websites in which advertisers pay their host only when their ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market. Content sites commonly charge a fixed price per click rather than use a bidding system.

Although many PPC providers exist, Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and Microsoft adCenter are the three largest network operators, and all three operate under a bid-based model. Cost per click (CPC) varies depending on the search engine and the level of competition for a particular keyword.

[Keyword] A word or phrase entered into a search engine in an effort to get the search engine to return matching and relevant results. Keywords are used to search for articles in a database as well as “tagged” to a website so that when people use that specific word to search, they are led to that particular site.

The second is Ezines Solo Ads, which can be a better choice for the person first starting out mainly due to the limited cost commitment required.

Ezines Solo Ads
Ezine Marketing is one of the favorite methods of many top producers. The reason for this is that Ezine marketing allows you to “piggy back” off the credibility of someone else and in essence “rent” someone else’s list!

Ezines is an online inventory of newsletters that people subscribe to and where Website owners keep in touch and build relationships with their visitors. Ezines are used to share news, updates, and website promotions. When an Ezine sends out an email with your ad in it the reader takes it more seriously because they have a “relationship” established with the Ezine.

Just about every Ezine accepts advertising from third parties. By mixing a few paid ads in with their content, website owners can defray the cost of operating an Ezine and open up an additional stream of revenue. You can place an ad for your website, product, or service in various Ezines. It is important to find an Ezine that narrowly targets the market you’re looking to reach. This will insure that your offer is relevant to a higher percentage of the Ezines’ followers.

The most expensive (but by far the best) type of Ezine ad is called a solo ad. Solo Ads, as the name implies, means “one ad.” When you take out a solo ad, your ad is the only one the reader of the Ezine will see.

The third is ListBuilders, which is one of the strategies I started with as I was developing my Article Marketing skills. ListBuilders are online services that you can send 1000’s of SOLO ADS to their members in the form of emails. “ListBuilders” are highly effective when used consistently. You can usually join them for free, but the real value is in the upgrade. The Members with “free” access are given credits to send ads or emails based on the number of other ads they read or sites they visit.

To upgrade, you pay a one time or annual fee, and then you’re able to immediately distribute ads to their database. You are usually limited to a certain number of emails within a certain number of days. You will also start receiving emails (ads) from other members. This can fill up your “Spam Box”. Then if you further upgrade you are allowed to send even larger numbers of emails and sometimes not required to continue receiving emails from other members. These services usually offer other similar products like banner ads and bar ads (which are short ads for your product or service) that will appear on cooperating websites to further drive more traffic to your site.

When starting out, ListBuilders can be a great source not only to jump start traffic coming to you, but they also provide a window for you to observe what others are doing, which will in turn sharpen your skills.

Other forms of Paid Advertising are, Banner Advertising, advertising that appears on a website, usually as a banner across the top of a page, and Facebook Advertising which is offered for people with budgets under $30,000 a month. -LOL- These and others I will go into more detail later, and on my website.

So how does this all tie in with a person that may want to start marketing a product or business, or even themselves on the Internet? Paid Advertizing is a terrific resource and widely used by people that fully understand our industry. Not a place to start, but a place to use “free” strategies while you are learning the ropes and are practicing new found tricks. With any Internet Marketing Strategy, most important is that you discover the strategy that you like most and are comfortable performing. If you enjoy the process you will be certain to be better at it. And the better you are at it, the more likely you’ll become consistent with its implementation. You will find that the strategy you choose is much less important than your ability to do it consistently in order to achieve success.

It is best to only choose 1 or 2 initial strategies to focus on at one time. The best strategy for one person may not be the best strategy for you. I agree it can seem overwhelming at times, but actually the process can be quite simple if one focuses on just one strategy at a time. There are unlimited training courses, Internet tools, websites and programs to help you be more effective and efficient in each separate category or strategy you choose. Having someone to help guide you through the process, pointing out which tools and programs offer the most help, not only will save your sanity, but also can save you hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in the process.

After you choose which strategy you want to implement, you will need a system or platform to manage all of these tasks relevant to those strategies. The system should also include support training so that you don’t spend endless time trying to just get started.